Move 'em up
Head 'em up
Move 'em on
Rawhide!
A unique roundup could be underway at the University of Victoria next month with an offer from a Texas rescue ranch to take up to 1,000 feral rabbits.
The university is planning to trap and then either kill or sterilize and relocate about 1,400 rabbits that are overrunning the campus.
Provincial regulations forbid adopting out feral rabbits, except to approved sanctuaries with permits, so rabbit advocates are scrambling to find placements.
"We called virtually every sanctuary we could find around North America, and we got to Texas and they said, 'OK, send them down,' " said Laura-Leah Shaw, a federal and provincial Green party candidate, who has been working to find places for the animals.
"If we can get something locally that's fine. But if it's a choice to go to Texas or die, that's an easy choice," she said of the Wild Rose Rescue Ranch, a 20-hectare rehabilitation farm in eastern Texas.
Simultaneously, Susan Vickery of Common Ground, a Gulf Islands-based wildlife assistance organization, is working on obtaining provincial permits for a new sanctuary at the World Parrot Refuge near Coombs. Refuge owner Wendy Huntbatch has agreed to allow a sanctuary for up to 400 spayed and neutered UVic rabbits.
A $50,000 donation from the Fur-Bearer Defenders will pay for spaying and neutering all rabbits trapped at UVic. Vickery has lined up 14 local veterinarians willing to help.
Georganne Lenham, founder and CEO of Wild Rose Rescue Ranch in the Tyler area of Texas, said she loves rabbits and knew she had to help when approached by Shaw. Most animals at the ranch, ranging from pigeons to possums, are rehabilitated and released, but the UVic rabbits will be kept in special enclosures near the creek and woods, Lenham said.
"They will feel free and wild, but they will be protected," she said, adding they will be slowly acclimatized to the heat.
Lenham, a wildlife rehabilitator licensed by the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife, said there are no restrictions on importing domestic rabbits.
However, it is not so straightforward at the Canadian end.
sa国际传媒 Environment Minister Barry Penner could declare European domestic rabbits a controlled alien species and they would then be exempt from the Wildlife Act, meaning no relocation permits would be needed, Shaw said.
Environment Ministry staff are reviewing an application for the export of 1,000 rabbits to Texas, said a spokeswoman.
However, the province also needs a detailed export plan, a Wildlife Act possession permit and an import permit from Texas.
Tom Smith, UVic's executive director of facilities management, said the university's responsibility is to ensure sanctuary permits and spay/neuter plans are in place before handing over trapped rabbits. After that, it is not UVic's concern where they go.
"We hope not to kill them -- that's a win-win for everyone -- but we're going to stick with the plan for a significant reduction in August," Smith said.
The aim is to trap 400 rabbits next month and, if licensed homes are available, they will be turned over as they are trapped, he said.
The university has struggled with the ballooning rabbit population for two decades. Most are offspring of pets abandoned on the grounds. UVic says the bunnies destroy trees and shrubs, dig holes in fields, making them dangerous to athletes, and carpet lawns with droppings. In June, the university released a management plan that called for 1,400 rabbits to be killed or sterilized and relocated to sanctuaries. About 200 will be allowed to stay on university grounds within Ring Road.
